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Seems there is no major comment about the current state of the scenery...

I am in the process of creating a how-to guide and also fighting my way through Python and QGIS plugins... I need badly to get that "ringer" to work, and maybe create a BLN exporter so we can get SBuilderX out of the equation...

Given the absence of comments, I may look into a way to make the scenery available already! That may attract more people willing to help on expanding it! maybe AVSim will have a way to accommodate a file that exceeds the maximum size allowed by "normal" library files!

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There are two possible solutions, one is to import the shapefile into a new GRASS mapset, which then automatically saves the inner rings as a new polygon layer. Or, and I think this one makes more sense, install a previous version of QGIS such as 1.8 from here: http://qgis.org/downloads/

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And another option using the MMQGIS plugin, is to export the polygons as .csv from MMQGIS/Import & Export/Geometry Export to CSV File. The .csv file will contain the rings separated with a ring tag or something like that. Hence, you would then have to delete all lines from the .csv file that do not contain the word "ring" and reimport. However, QGIS wont automatically build the polygons as it can only import .csv files as point data. Maybe using a small script, you could format the ring edits directly to .bln by removing specific strings from each line.

Also tried to convert the plugin ... I got it to load but rings are not added... all other options other that QGIS 1.8 are time consuming... and the process is already very lengthy... I will try and look to make a one-click plugin that exports BLN ... as this saves the hassle of loading into SBuilderX and exporting... SBX always resets to its default folders and you have to spend lots of time just navigating to where you want to export your file...

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It is very useful to get us rid of QGIS 1.8, as a serious bug involving tiny rings and the simplification tool (extensively used for this scenery) makes stuff disappear. I had to go about manually fixing stuff until QGIS 2.0 came along! Now I can build a how-to guide with less requisite programs... I will see if digitizing tools allows me to get rid of ScenProc as ring remover. Basically we need to separate islands from water features (applies only to lakes, coastlines are a lot messier), so "ringer" created polygons, that i saved in a new layer, then ScenProc got rid of the rings...

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are you aware of the NaturalEarthData website, that provides vectors for urban areas, amongst others? Its public domain derived from MODIS interpretations. I dont know how much of it is already on OSM but if not it could save you processing all the buildings for Europe.

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I am using dry non-grid medium and urban hirise. Opted for those because these are city polygons where small green areas theoretically are not included.... however if Y opt for 4 texture types, I may add dry small non-grid and another probably wet....

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Hmm...I'llcheck that out, but in theory, everything is there! There were some coastlines in UK that proved a major PITA...

I'm getting a BLN exporter plugin almost ready, so to include in the guide... also I'll try to include a ring separator plugin that will save layer without rings in one place, and rings in another, I may just call it "Divorce", as it gets rid of the rings

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I'm confident that other free data sources can be found to fill in the holes or gaps in the osm data set. In the us, we have huge amounts of free gis data available from individual states, the national map, and the census bureau... I'll bet that similar resources exist for most places in western Europe. Of course, osm data is probably more accurate where it exists than most free datasets are, but holes can easily be filled.

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So yes, UK and Ireland are missing! Excellent find! I did not know in what of the four quadrants the data will go and left it for later. Ultimately, no folder was there and I forgot to process the data

I will process them as the very next thing I do, and take the opportunity to try out landpolys with 4 texture types

I do not understand why landclass is not working there... may check it out! maybe something is amiss with the OSM World masking landclass...

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So yes, UK and Ireland are missing! Excellent find! I did not know in what of the four quadrants the data will go and left it for later. Ultimately, no folder was there and I forgot to process the data

I will process them as the very next thing I do, and take the opportunity to try out landpolys with 4 texture types

I do not understand why landclass is not working there... may check it out! maybe something is amiss with the OSM World masking landclass...

Ah great, happy to help! I am also looking forward to the guide so that I can start with Asia or Eastern Europe. ;-)

I don't know if something that has been deactivated can prevent landclass from working. Other addon landclasses for e.g. Germany or Denmark work fine. I am at a loss here, no idea whatsover.

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Allright! Good news is that this setback on British areas is letting me take detailed note of what I do for a good how-to guide. I have figured out how to make this scenery along the way, so I did not have everything noted down... also I managed to get rid of the need for SBuilderX and SCenProc, both used for trivial tasks. It can all be done in QGIS now! it appears that using "v.buffer.distance" removes rings (holes), something I had ScenProc doing before. Also, SBuilderX was there only to convert shapefiles to BLN files that could be loaded in SBuilder, but now I scripted a converter for QGIS.

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Allright! Good news is that this setback on British areas is letting me take detailed note of what I do for a good how-to guide. I have figured out how to make this scenery along the way, so I did not have everything noted down... also I managed to get rid of the need for SBuilderX and SCenProc, both used for trivial tasks. It can all be done in QGIS now! it appears that using "v.buffer.distance" removes rings (holes), something I had ScenProc doing before. Also, SBuilderX was there only to convert shapefiles to BLN files that could be loaded in SBuilder, but now I scripted a converter for QGIS.

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